The Art of Food is in its seventh
year at The Carnegie in Covington, but it wasn’t until last year that I
finally hit the opening night. It really made me regret that I’d missed
the first five. What an amazing event! So I’m writing this now, while
tickets are still available.

On Monday, Cincinnati Art Museum announced the resignation of James Crump, its chief curator and photography curator. He arrived at the museum in 2008. A press release said he would "pursue independent projects." The press release also included high praise for Crump from Aaron Betsky, museum director: "We are so grateful for the great work James has done here in Cincinnati. His exhibitions and acquisitions have made us a center for photography, and we look forward to building on his extraordinary achievements."One of those achievements, the exhibition James Welling: Monograph, just opened Feb. 2. Crump was also a leader in the organization of last year's multi-venue FotoFocus photography festival, and Cincinnati Art Museum sponsored two of its biggest shows — Herb Ritts: L.A. Style and Doug and Mike Starn's Gravity of Light.The museum said an interim chief curator will be named soon. Recently, the Italian art-book publisher Damiani launched a new line of Damiani / Crump books. It begins in March with Empire Falling, photographer Elena Dorfman's study of Midwest rock quarries.

Domino 02: Aqua, an exhibition at
Covington’s Artisans Enterprise Center (AEC), features an “international
collaboration” by 12 artists, each one creating a painting on half of
two canvases, which are then distributed to another artist to finish the
other side.

Focusing on 2012's visual arts highlights

This may seem a strange way to start a
review of the year in Cincinnati’s visual arts, but the piece that stays
with me the most — haunts me, really — doesn’t even fit any traditional
definition of art.

If you’re looking for cliché presents, head to your
nearest department store. If you and your favorite recipients are
looking for a memorable exhibit, head to the Weston Art Gallery for Straight from the Soul, a 25-year retrospective by the Atlanta artist.

By next weekend you'll be all crazy with gift shopping
and baking cookies, so theater might not be such a high priority. So
how about catching a great holiday show this weekend to put in in the
holiday mood?
Starting Sunday evening you can get caught up on Christmas lore — well, at least a funny, off-kilter version of it — thanks to the jolly folks at Cincinnati Shakespeare Company who are presenting Every Christmas Story Ever Told (and then some)! The mash-up
of Rudolph and Frosty and Santa and Ebenezer and George Bailey (and a
lot more) opens on Sunday evening. Cincy Shakes used to offer this one in the courtyard at Arnold's Bar & Grill, but they had such demand for tickets that they've moved it to their mainstage, over on Race Street in Downtown Cincinnati. They seem to have been correct in anticipating
that people wanted to see the show: Several days before it opened,
almost all the tickets had been sold! So they've added four more
performances, 2 p.m. on Dec. 22-23 and 29-30. It all wraps up on Dec. 30, so don't waste any time figuring out when you're going fit this in. And to keep up your holiday spirits, Cincy Shakes has scored a temporary liquor permit for the run of this show. Cheers! Tickets: 513-381-2273, x1.
Speaking of Cincy Shakes, you still have a few more chances to see The Importance of Being Earnest (see review here) before it vacates the premises for Every Christmas Story.
Oscar Wilde's witty farce is not a holiday show, but it's a great deal
of fun, guaranteed to put you in a good mood. Although I haven't seen
Falcon Theater's production of It's a Wonderful Life — recreating the story of George Bailey and Bedford Falls as it might have been without him — it's picked up some solid recognition from a panel of judges for the Acclaim Awards. The story is presented as a production of a 1940s radio play, and it's happening in Newport's intimate Monmouth Theatre. Tickets: 513-479-6783.
Ensemble Theatre's fractured musical retelling of Alice in Wonderland (see review here) offers a colorful, visual feast as well as a take on the story that has a few lessons for kids, but plenty of entertainment for everyone. (Tickets: 513-421-3555) And the most traditional of all the holiday shows, A Christmas Carol
at the Cincinnati Playhouse, continues to be a great outing for
families. We had out of town guests last weekend who came to Cincinnati
to see it, and they loved every minute of it. If you haven't seen it, this is one you'll remember — and probably want to add as a must-see every holiday season. Tickets: 513-421-3888.

It’s never too
late in the history of humankind for a new Christmas tradition —
especially if it comes out of the world of edgy, avant-garde
participatory performance art. Edgy, avant-garde and fun participatory performance art, that is.

Glitter and glitz abound in Covedale's holiday fairytale

It might not have occurred to you that Cinderella
is a fairytale for the holidays, but at the Covedale Center they’ve made
it into a cheerful family-friendly extravaganza, decked out with
tinsel, glitter, snow, a midwinter ball and Christmas caroling.

If Henri Toulouse-Lautrec and Herb Ritts
could have a drink together, they’d find so much to talk about that the
drinks might just keep coming. The Cincinnati Art Museum’s total
collection of Toulouse-Lautrec prints (43) and posters (eight) fill
niches at right and left of the Great Hall balcony entrance to Herb Ritts: L.A. Style, providing that sensuous outlay of black and white photographs with an historic backdrop.